Game On Thursday! – Mega Man II (GB)

Hey all welcome to another Game On! Thursday! Over the previous weekend I hit a “gaming milestone” of sorts at least as far as my younger self is concerned I beat of the first Gameboy game I ever got! Mega Man II for the Gameboy. As you may or may not recall Mega Man for the PC was the first Mega Man game I ever got/played (See previous Game On! Thurday)

Pretty sweet box art!

Mega Man II is considered possibly the worst of the Gameboy Mega Man games, but it was the first and only one I had gotten up until much later. I picked up it up in 1996 when I got my first Gameboy which was a Gameboy pocket. I had played Mega Man II since then at a friend’s house on his NES, and really liked it despite not really liking Mega Man PC. It took me months and maybe years, or at least until Pokemon came out, to get to Wily and still as a kid I never beat it. Last weekend however, I cleared the whole game in like 30 mins, I was surprised at how my skills improved since I was 12. It was a fun and easy ride and a nice trip down memory lane.

Time to show Clash Man who’s boss!

If you’re not familiar with the Mega Man Gameboy games they are almost all (except in the case of MM5) mashups of two of the NES games. In the case of MMII, it is a mashup of Mega Man II and Mega Man III on the NES. Basically all the elements of both games are retained just 4 bosses from one and 4 from the other are present. In this particular game you have Wood Man, Clash Man, Air Man, Metal Man, Magnet Man, Hard Man, Needle Man, and Top Man. In addition you have a game specific boss, Quint, and of course Doctor Wily. The game adds the slide from Mega Man III as well as Rush Jet, Rush Marine, and Rush Coil for good measure as well.

Dr. Wily hired Salvador Dali as his interior decorator.

The levels themselves for each Robot Master are similar as well to their NES counterparts you get sub-bosses and the usual hazards from each stage, though some are remixed or abridged, though they are all pretty well done. Keiji Inafune though wasn’t too happy with the game apparently, as it was handed off to a different team than the first Mega Man Gameboy game. After Mega Man II, the same original Gameboy team did all the rest of the Gameboy Mega Man games. This one I think is a perfect introductory Mega Man game as it’s easy, straightforward, and just fun. It controls well, sounds good, and it’s a fun romp through Mega Man’s world without too much frustration that may make less experienced players throw down the Gameboy and say, “I HATE MEGA MAN!”.

I’d recommend it for your Mega Man Neophytes as it’s pretty cheap, and not hard to find a platform to play it on. You can pick it up for a couple of dollars on Amazon or Ebay.

Happy Gaming!
-Jinroh

Images borrowed from Wikipedia and Exfanding.com under non-profit fair use.